Ever since some self-hating scribe wrote in Leviticus that homosexuality is an abomination punishable by death gays and lesbians have been getting murdered by the straight supremacists who would impose their Mein Kampf values on us.

How many within the LGBTQ community over the last few thousand years been beaten and murdered? When is enough enough?

I wish that we could build a museum -- either an online virtual museum or a physical building -- dedicated to the memory of all the LGBTQ victims of such hate crimes over the millenia; however, even the best historians never will be able to assemble the identity of all the victims of the LGBTQ holocaust that remains in place with the support of the state and the blessing of religion throughout much of the world.

HOGB-

The Gay American Heroes Foundation (www.gayamericanheroes.com) is working on building a traveling memorial to LGBT hate crimes victims. If you or any of our readers know of cases that need to be added to the memorial, I encourage you to contect them. Liek you said, it is impossible to find all of them, but we need to include the memory of all that we can.

Thanks for bringing The Gay American Heroes Foundation to my attention; I previously was unaware of the group, and what an amazing project with which it is involved.

I do believe in God, and I believe that in the end everything -- including all the suffering that we experience -- is explained and revealed.

And I believe that all those who preached the hate and sanctified the discrimination that is the fuel for crimes against the LGBTQ community are in for a rude awakening at the reckoning, and when the hateful finally see God they will understand that all their fag bashing was against none other than Jesus Christ.

I'll never forget the image in my mind of Matthew Shepherd tied crucifixion style to the fence post in Wyoming, and in the cold and alone as he was dying with tears parting the blood on his face I can't help but wonder if he thought he had been forsaken and whether he was able to forgive his killers for they knew not what they had done.

I always am reminded of Knockin' On Heaven's Door each time I hear about the murder of someone in our LGBTQ community.

GAHF has a pretty active Facebook page too, Gay Bars. You should check it out if you're on FB.

The NCAVP data for the 2000 and 2004 elections show an upturn in violence against GLBT folks. The same thing happened during local controversies over same sex marriage, particularly in San Francisco when Newsome ordered city hall to perform them. These events are always accompanied by a barrage of hate speech by Republicans and christians. And invariably the Democrats scramble to avoid being identified as 'gay lovers'. When they trash bills like ENDA and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bills they do their bit to embolden the thugs.

It seems to me that there's already been an increase in violence this year. We need the hate crimes bill and an anti-hate speech bill more than ever. The efforts to memorialize our dead with the Gay American Heroes Foundation is a wonderful idea, but really there are millions of heroic GLBT folks everywhere. It often takes real heroism just to keep on going in some of the redneck parts of the country and even in the more 'civilized' areas.

http://www.ncavp.org National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs

I really hate it when you make me cry. Thank you for making me cry. It reminds me I am human. I wonder how the world would be if everyone had the ability to cry.